Metal bending machine



June 19, 1934. w K NE 1,963,661

METAL BENDING MACHINE Filed Fe. 15, 1960 s Sheets-Sheet 1 110M563 I I QKWZM- A rromv: rs

June 19, 1934; w. E. KANE 1,963,661

' METAL BENDINGMACHINE Filed Feb. 15, 1930 s Sheets-Sheet 2 E J. ,5 I )5 IN VIA/70R Mr/visa I ,By /W MM I mv z Arrow: rs

June19, 1934. I w, E. KANE 1,963,661

METAL BENDING MACHINE Filed Feb. 15, 1930 I5 Sheets-Sheet 3 W/f/VESJ By' I KM fir/fem rs Patented June 19, 1934 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

METAL BENDING MACHINE William E. Kane, Syracuse, N. 7 Application February 15, 1930, Serial No. 428,677 4 Claims. (01. 153-46) This invention relates to a machine for bending flanged metal bars such as angle irons, T-bars, channel bars and the like but more particularly 7 for bending straight angle irons into circular form to be used for brake-drums or any other purpose to which they may be adapted.

These angle irons are usually rectangular in cross-section while the flanges thereof are in many instances of approximately uniform appreciable width so that during the bending operation about an axis at right angles to the plane of either flange the inner and'outer portions of different radii will be subjected to somewhat severe longitudinal stresses, either compression or tensile, depending upon the direction of curvature.

These widely varying and relatively opposed stresses tend to produce more or less irregular axial buckling and spiral deflection of various portions of the flanged iron in the direction of the axis of curvature so that unless some'means is provided to offset this tendency the resultant product would'be imperfect and unfit for practical use without further treatment.

The main object, therefore, of the present in-- vention is to provide the bending machine with simple, practical and efficient means for preventing the axial buckling and deflection of any portion of the flanged iron during the bending oper-.

ation and at the same time to secure a uniform '30- and concentric curvature of all parts thereof in one operation without varying the original rectangular relation of the flanges.

The actual bending of the iron may be accomplished by various types of metal bending machines but preferably by a machine having at least three co-operative pressure rollers having parallel axes arranged at the angles of an isosceles triangle or in such position that one of the rollers will be in opposed relation to the-adjacent faces of the other rollers and provided with an annular groove complementary to one of the flanges of the iron for receiving the same and bending the iron in transit through the machine.

One of the specific objects 'is' to provide this 5f type of machine with one or more, in this in-' stance two, bearing plates arranged at one or both sides of the guide roller and having their bearing faces disposed at right angles to the axis of said roller and in a plane parallel with the groove for engaging the adjacent 'edge of the angle iron and thereby directing the movement of said iron in a plane parallel with that of the annular groove and incidentally preventing spiral deflection of the iron during the bending operation. v

Another specific object is to provide the side plates with additional bearing members for engaging one of the faces of the base flange of the article under treatment and thereby preventing radial deflection or buckling of said article as the bending operation continues.

A further object is to provide means for adjusting either side plate independently of the other for varying the pressure of its bearing member-- upon the article as maybe required for different metals or metals of different thicknesses and shape. I 1 g Another object is to provide the machine with an intermediate bearing plate between the rollers having a hardened bearing surface in the same plane as the bearing surfaces of the side plates for engaging the corresponding edge of the article and thereby assisting in directing the bent articlein a plane at'right angles to the axesof the rollers. I 1

Other objects and uses will be brought out in the following description. I

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is an end elevation of the upper portion of ametal bending machine embodying the various features of my invention. 7 v

- Figure-2 is a side elevation partly in section of the mechanism shown in Figure l. p

Figure 3 is a horizontal sectional viewtaken in the plane of line 3-43, Figure 1. I 85,

Figure 4 is an enlarged vertical sectional view taken in the plane of line 44, Figure 3.

Figure 5 is a vertical sectional view taken in the plane of line 5-5, Figure 1.

Figure 6 is an end face view of one of the side plates showing a modified form of radial thrust bearing.

Figure '1 is a detail sectional view taken in the plane of line 7-7, Figure 6. I

Figure 8 is an end elevation similar to Figure 1 partly in section showing the modified radial thrust bearings on the side plates as indicated in Figures 6 and '7.

' In order that the invention may be' clearly understood I have shown the upper portion of a main supporting frame or bed 1 having. upright standards 2 and 3 rising therefrom in spaced relation from front to rear of the machine for receiving and supporting a plurality of, in this instance three, forwardly and rearwardly extending parallel shafts 4, 5 and 6 having their axes disposed at the angles of an. isosceles triangle for receiving and'supporting a corresponding number of co-operative pressure and feeding rollers 7, 8

and 9 which are keyed to their respective shafts to rotate therewith.

These shafts are journaled in suitable bearings in the upright standards 2 and 3 and together with their respective rollers '7, 8 and 9 are adapted to be rotated in unison by any suitable mechanism not necessary to herein illustrate or describe for the reason that the driving means forms no part of the present invention.

The shafts 4 and 5 and their respective rollers '7 and 8 are arranged in the same horizontal plane below the shaft 6 and its roller 9 and in transversely spaced relation for engaging one side of the metal bar as A under bending treatment while the shaft 6 and its roller 9 are disposed in a horizontal plane directly over the adjacent sides of the rollers 7 and 8 for engaging the opposite face of the bar A.

The peripheries of these rollers 7, 8 and 9 are shown as serrated to assure positive feeding of the bar A between the rollers, it being understood that the rollers are disposed in substantially the same vertical plane and of somewhat greater face width than the bar A, the peripheries of the rollers being generally cylindrical.

When the bar A under bending treatment is an angle iron, as illustrated, one of the rollers as 9 will be provided with an annular groove 10 for receiving the upright flange as a of the bar while the lower flange a will be impinged between the adjacent peripheral sides of the rollers '7, 8 and 9 as shown more clearly in Figure 4.

That is, when bending a bar A about an axis above the axis of the roller 9 said roller will be adjusted or set to bring its lower side to a plane slightly below the horizontal plane of the upper sides of the rollers '7 and 8 to produce the desired curvature of the bar under which conditions the lower face of the flange a will be engaged by the rollers '7 and 8 while the upper face of the same flange will be engaged by the lower side of the roller 9 with the upright flange a riding in the annular groove 10.

The radial depth and axial width of the groove 10 are complementary to the corresponding dimensions of the flange a and therefore the side walls of the groove serve to guide and direct the bar in transit through the machine and also assist in keeping said flange in a plane at right angles to the base flange a during the bending operation.

The radial distance between the outer periphery of the roller 9 and inner peripheral wall as 11 of the groove 10 of the roller 9 is substantially equal to the inner radial width of the flange a of the bar A so that when the bar is fed between the rollers in the manner previously described the inner peripheral edge of the flange a will be engaged by the peripheral wall 11 to assist in effecting a uniform bending of all portions of the bar in transit through the machine.

The shafts 4, 5 and 6 are provided with shoulders against which the corresponding rollers '7, 8 and 9 may abut, the forward ends of the shafts being threaded to receive suitable nuts 12 and 12' by which the rollers are held against forward axial displacement.

The front end wall as 9' of the groove 10 forming a part of the roller 9 is made separate from the remaining portions of said roller to permit it to be removed independently of the rear section so that one or more extra flller washers may be placed upon the adjacent end of the mandrel as may be required for flanges of diiferent thicknesses, after which the section 9 may be replaced and held in position by the nuts 12, it being understood that these washers will form continuations of the annular shoulder 11 for engaging th inner edge of the flange a.

The bearing for the shaft 6 carrying the guide roller 9 is preferably movable from its normal operative position away from the companion rollers 7 and 8 to permit the angular finished product to be readily withdrawn from the machine, or, the free end of the finished product may be sprung axially beyond the grooved roller to allow the other end to run out from between the rollers for displacing the product from the machine.

The diameter of the roller section 9 is slightly greater than that of the remaining portion of the roller 9 to allow it to overlap upon the entire front face of the upright flange a and thereby to assist in holding the bar against lateral deflection during the bending operation.

Flangeguiding and truing mechanism The mechanism thus far described is arranged to bend a straight angle oarv into cylindrical form of predetermined radius but as previously indicated the portions of the curved bar of different radii will be subjected to widely varying compression and tensile stresses which, unless offset by other forces or pressures, will cause more or less deformation of the resultant product from that required.

This deformation may be a lateral deflection or spiral twist of the ends and intermediate portion of the bar; a buckling of one or both of the flanges at irregular points in its length; or a deflection of the flanges from their normal right angular relation, and the purpose of my present invention is to overcome any and all of these possible defects in a single bending operation.

In carrying out this object a pair of rock shafts'l3 are journaled in suitable bearings in the upright standards 2 and 3 parallel with and at opposite sides of the upper pressure roller 9 as shown more clearly in Figure 3.

The rear ends of these rock shafts are provided with square threads journaled in the adjacent portions of the upright standard 3, the threaded ends of each rock shaft being engaged by nuts 15 at opposite sides of the standard for permitting the shaft to be adjusted endwise and firmly held in its adjusted position without interfering with its free rocking movement, thus permitting the side plates 16 to be properly set for engaging the work.

A pair of side plates 16 are keyed or otherwise secured to the front ends of the rock shafts 13 for axial and angular movement therewith, each side plate having its front end face disposed in a plane at right angles to the axes of the bending rollers to form end thrust bearings for the adjacent faces or edges of the angle bar during the bending operation.

These end thrust bearing surfaces are preferably hardened and are disposed in the same transverse vertical plane a distance from the annular groove 10 corresponding to the transverse width of the angle bar under treatment so that when the bar is being fed through the machine with its upright flange guided in the annular groove 10 the rear edge of the other or base flange will ride against the front bearing surfaces of both of the side plates'lfi to prevent lateral deflection of any portion of the bar and.

to cause all portions of either edge of the bar to move in the same plane when the bar is bent into circular form.

It is apparent from the foregoing description that the axial adjustment of the rock shafts 13 carrying the side plates 16 enables the latter to be closely adjusted to the required position for engaging the rear edges of the angle bar to prevent lateral deflection of the ends thereof during the bending operation.

The upper peripheral portions of the side plates 16 are deflected rearwardly at 16 to enable the ends of the bars to ride freely across and against the front faces of the plates 16 when the angle bar A has been bent into circular form and fed in reverse directions by reverse movements of the bending rollers and thereby to impart a more permanent cylindrical form to the bar.

The side plates 16 extend inwardly some distance beyond their respective axes of oscillation and, as shown in Figures 1 to 4 inclusive, are provided'with roller bearings 17 journaled thereon eccentric to their respective axes for engagement with the inner face of the base flange a.

In Figures 5 to 8 inclusive these roller bear-v relatively fixed bearings as may be required for.

cylindrical angle bars of different radii. The function of these eccentric bearings 1'7 and 17 is to engage the inner face of the base flange a during the bending operation for stretching the same and thereby to relieve the upright flange from excessive lengthwise compression stresses tending to buckle the same and at the same time to assist in maintaining rectangular relation between the flanges during the bending operation.

Each of the rock shafts 13 and side plate 16 mounted thereon is adapted to be adjusted angularly about the axis thereof for varying the'pressure of the bearing member 1'7 or 17', upon the inner face of the base flange a as may be required for flanges of different thicknesses or different densities and for this purpose each shaft is provided with an outwardly projecting crank arm 18 splined thereon to rotate with the shaft and to permit relative axial movement of said shaft for the purpose previously described.

Each of the crank arms 18 is provided near its outer end with an apertured head 19 journaled thereon for relative angular movement and adapted to receive a screw shaft 20 having its lower end engaged in a threaded aperture of nut head 21 which is journaled in a fixed bearing 22 on one of the upright members as 2 for relative angular movement, see Figure 2.

Each of the shafts 20 is provided with a pair of collars 23 engaging the lower and upper faces of the head 19 to hold the shaft 20 against axial movement in the head, the upper end of each shaft being provided with a hand wheel 24 by which it may be turned to effect a corresponding rocking movement of the crank arm 18 and shaft 13 to which it is secured.

Each of the crank arms 18 is provided with a scale 25 concentric with its axis of movement and adapted to co-operate with a relatively fixed pointer 26 on the adjacent upright 2 for indicating the angle of movement of the crank arm and incidentally indicating the position of the corresponding bearing member 1'7 or 17' relatively to the part of the work to be engaged thereby, it being understood that the engagement 10f the threaded end of each screw shaft with its corresponding nut 21 will hold the crank .arm and side plate in their adjusted positions.

An additional end thrust bearing plate 27 of approximately triangular form is bolted or otherwise removably secured to the front face of the standard 2 of the frame 1 between .the adjacent faces of the bending rollers '7, 8 and 9 for engaging the rear edge of the base flange a and thereby assisting in guiding the angle bar in transit through the machine or during the bending operation.

That is, the front face of the bearing plate 27 is disposed in substantially the same transverse vertical plane as the front faces of the side plates 16 and co-operates therewith in directingthe angle bar in a plane parallel with said faces and at the same time preventing any possibility of lateral buckling of the bar in the direction of the axes of the bending rollers during the bending operation.

During the bending of the angle iron by and between the rollers 7, 8 and 9 the relatively high compression resistance of the inner portion of the flangea causes more or less stretching of the outer portion of the same flange, particularly .at its junction with the other flange a so that the resultant tendency is to warp, the flange a outwardly in an axial direction and the other flange a inwardly in a radial direction and in order to restore the normal relation of both flanges to each other and to the axes of the bending rollers Ihave provided the end-thrust bearing plates 16 and the radial-thrust members 17 or 1'7.

That is the members 17 or 17 are adjusted to flrmly engage the inner periphery of the flange a. to stretch the same to conform to the radius of the previously stretched portion of the flange a at its junction with the flange a and thereby to restore the normal relation of both flanges to each other and to the axes of the rollers while the bearing plates 16 are adjusted to flmily engage the end edge. of the flange a to guidethe bent angle iron in a plane at rightangles to said axes.

It is evident, however, that the same machine may be used for bending angle irons of any length into helical form by simply springing the previously bent endof the first formed helix beyond the outer end of the grooved roller and continuing the bending operation until the run-out of the other end of the iron.

It is also evident that if the angle iron is to be bent with its vertical flange facing outwardly both of the lower rollers '7 and 8 will be provided with annular grooves in the same transverse plane similar to the groove 10 for receiving said vertical flange without departing from the spirit of this invention under which conditions the horizontal flange would face outwardly and the side plates 16 would be adjusted to engage the inner or rear face of the vertical flange, these changes being obvious and therefore it is deemed unnecessary to further illustrate or describe the same.

Operation Assuming that the bending rollers '7, 8 and 9 are being driven in the direction indicated by the arrows, Figure 4, and that the base flange a of the straight angle bar is fed between the rollers with the upright flange guided in the annular groove 10 under which conditions the portion of the bar between the rollers will be bent to the required curvature and, as the bending operation continues, the rear edge of the base flange a will ride against the front face of the bearing plate 27 and rear side plate 16 whereupon the radial thrust bearing member 17 or 1'7 will be brought into engagement with the inner face of the base flange and, at about the time that the straight end of the bar has reached a position between the bending rollers, the previously bent end will have returned into engagement with the front side of the other side plate 16 to cause the corresponding radial thrust bearing member 17 or 17 to engage the inner face of the previously bent base flange 11' thereby repeating the bending operation one or more turns of the bent bar until the latter is shaped to the desired cylindrical form with the assurance that all portions thereof will be approximately concentric with'its axis and that the flanges will remain at right angles to each other.

That is, the straight bar is converted into cylindrical form in practically one cycle of operation through the bending machine but in order to permanently fix all parts of the cylindrical article to the desired form the cycle of operation may be repeated one or more times either in the same direction or in the reverse direction by reversing the direction of movement of the bending rollers. As each piece of Work is bent to the required form, one end thereof may be sprung forwardly by hand beyond the front facing of the roller section 9, While the other end is being run out from between the bending rollers or, if necessary, the nuts 12 and column section 9' may be removed to allow the finished work to be Withdrawn from the annular groove 10.

When the machine has been properly set for producing cylindrical articles of predetermined radius the position of the radial. thrust bearing member 17 or 17 may be indicated by the scales 25 and pointers 26 and the reading may be recorded for future use for duplicating the same article.

The construction and operation of the bending machine may now be clearly understood upon reference to the foregoing description and accompanying drawings but it is evident that various changes may be made in the detail construction and that the bending rollers may be otherwise arranged by bending the metal in a different direction without departing from the spirit of this invention and therefore I do not wish to limit myself to the exact construction shown and described.

What I claim is:

1. In an angle iron bending machine, three cooperative feeding rollers having parallel axes arranged at the angles of a triangle for engaging opposite faces of one of the flanges and feeding the angle iron endwise, one of the rollers having an annular groove for receiving the other flange of the angle iron, plates at opposite sides of the grooved roller having bearing surfaces disposed in a plane at right angles to the axis of said roller and a distance from the groove corresponding to the Width of the first named flange for engaging the free edge thereof, and an intermediate guide plate having a bearing surface disposed in the same plane as the bearing surfaces of the side plates for engaging the free edge of the first named flange.

- 2. In an angle iron bending machine, co-operative feeding rollers having parallel axes arranged at the angles of a triangle for en aging opposite faces of one of the flanges and feeding the angle iron endwise, one of said rollers having an annular groove for receiving the other flange of the angle iron, guide plates arranged at opposite sides of the grooved roller for engaging the free edge of the first named flange, and an intermediate guide plate for engaging the free edge of the first named flange between the opposite guide plates.

3. In a machine for bending metal bars, a set of parallel rollers for feeding and bending the bar, a bearing member exerting pressure on said bar in the direction of the axis of the rollers, a second bearing member between the rollers exerting pressure on said bar in the direction of the axes of the rollers, and a roller bearing member on the first-named bearing member in rolling engagement with said bar and exerting pressure on the bar transversely of said axes.

4. In a machine for bending metal bars, a set of parallel rollers for feeding and bending the bar, bearing plates at opposite sides of the rollers exerting pressure on the bar in a direction parallel with said rollers, and an intermediate bearing plate exerting pressure on the bar in the same direction as the first named bearing plates.

WILLIAM E. KANE. 

